Clashes on road to Telavi as police block protesters from Georgian presidential inauguration

Oppo­si­tion pro­test­ers clashed with police on Sunday after they were prevented from entering the east Georgian city of Telavi, where Salome Zura­bishvili was being sworn in as president. In her inau­gu­ra­tion speech, Georgia’s fifth president called for national unity and an end to ‘political con­fronta­tions’.

On Sunday morning, the Interior Ministry announced they would limit traffic movement in Telavi and to Kakheti Region due to security concerns.

An oppo­si­tion convoy with signs reading ‘No to Salome!’ took off from Tbilisi heading to Telavi in the morning, but were blocked by police as the road turns North to Telavi just east of Tbilisi, with only invited guests allowed through.

The convoy was organised by the Strength in Unity coalition of pres­i­den­tial runner-up Grigol Vashadze, which is dominated by the United National Movement Party (UNM).

Vashadze was narrowly defeated by Zura­bisvhili in the first round, winning 38% to 39%, but lost in the second round run-off on 28 November 40% to 60%.

Despite losing by 370,000 of votes, Vashadze had refused the concede calling the elections a ‘criminal farse’ and demanding snap par­lia­men­tary elections.

Vashadze and others argued that a promise by the gov­ern­ment imme­di­ate­ly before the election to pay off the debts of 600,000 people amounted to vote buying, and also pointed to vio­la­tions during the election.

The main inter­na­tion­al observer missions — from the OSCE/ODIHR Election Obser­va­tion Mission, NDI, IRI, as well as local watchdogs — did not question the legit­i­ma­cy of the final outcome.

The OSCE/ODIHR mission called the elections com­pet­i­tive, where can­di­dates were able to campaign freely and the voters had a chance to make their choice.

Scuffles with police

The oppo­si­tion convoy then took the longer southern route pro­ceed­ing through Gurjaani but were again blocked by police near the village Velist­sikhei, 30 kilo­me­tres south-east of Telavi.

As Zura­bishvili was sworn in, pro­test­ers scuffled with police near Velist­sikhe in an attempt to break through but ulti­mate­ly failed to reach the town.

According to the Interior Ministry, more than 10 police officers were injured during the alter­ca­tion, and several oppo­si­tion sup­port­ers were also hurt.

The ministry claimed they had offered an even longer route to pro­test­ers ‘through Kvareli’, as well as shuttles. They also said pro­test­ers could have walked to Telavi.

The leaders of the protest convoy, including the UNM’s Nika Melia and former pres­i­den­tial candidate Grigol Vashadze, insisted the Kvareli route was blocked just like the others and accused the gov­ern­ment of curbing their con­sti­tu­tion­al right to freedom of movement.

The oppo­si­tion also claimed the author­i­ties did not inform them of the alter­na­tive routes before­hand.

Oppo­si­tion protests were also held in several locations through­out the country including in Batumi and Zugdidi.

After the inau­gu­ra­tion, Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia thanked and apol­o­gised to police officers con­trol­ling the crowds, adding that they had been more tolerant than they had to.

He vowed to prosecute anyone, ‘regard­less of their status’, if footage revealed they had committed offences against police officers.

Gakharia also crit­i­cised a statement from Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria, who earlier called on the author­i­ties to respect the opposition’s con­sti­tu­tion­al right to travel freely to Telavi.

She also urged protest organ­is­ers to ‘avoid violating the law, so that the assembly and man­i­fes­ta­tion sits within the con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly guar­an­teed limits’.

After the swear-in ceremony, former Georgian President and UNM party chair Mikheil Saakashvili called for a protest rally in Tbilisi in front of the Par­lia­ment building on Rustaveli avenue.

That evening several dozen oppo­si­tion sup­port­ers gathered in front of par­lia­ment and set up several tents.

Oppo­si­tion leaders told jour­nal­ists they will now plan their next move.

(Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)

(Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)

(Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)

(Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)

(Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)

(Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)

‘Everyone’s president’

In her inau­gu­ra­tion speech at Telavi’s Batonis-Tsikhe Castle, Zura­bishvili said Georgia had ‘lost years to political con­fronta­tions’.

‘I respect those who did not vote for me. I also know that several [political] parties have different positions, among others, about recog­nis­ing me as president. However, from today, by the rights bestowed upon me by the con­sti­tu­tion, I take respon­si­bil­i­ty to be everyone’s president’.

Zura­bishvili several times evoked the legacy of the first Georgian Republic of the early 20th century.

‘A century ago, the head of the the First Republic adopted the most pro­gres­sive con­sti­tu­tion of their times.’

She later said her pres­i­den­cy was a ‘con­tin­u­a­tion of the tradition’ of those times, arguing that ‘five women in par­lia­ment’ was still rare in Europe at that time.

The 1918 Act of Georgian Inde­pen­dence included sig­na­tures of five women, all from the Social-Demo­c­ra­t­ic (Menshevik) party.

She praised Georgia’s previous post-inde­pen­dence pres­i­dents, saying first Georgian President Zviad Gam­sakhur­dia ‘played a crucial role when he called a ref­er­en­dum and adopted the Act of Restora­tion of Inde­pen­dence of Georgia’ on 9 April, 1991.

Salome Zura­bishvili (Salome Zura­bishvili /Facebook)

(Salome Zura­bishiv­li /Facebook)

‘Eduard She­vard­nadze was the first to pave way to European and the Euro-Atlantic space. In the initial years of his pres­i­den­cy, Mikheil Saakashvili laid the ground for a number of important reforms. During Giorgi Margvelashvili’s pres­i­den­cy, a number of steps were taken towards strength­en­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­cy, solid­i­fy­ing stability.’

‘My mission is to do every­thing to make the devel­op­ment of our state, of its European future, irre­versible’, she said.

In her speech, Zura­bishvili also condemned ‘attempts’ to politi­cise the army, confirmed her support for Georgia’s pro-western foreign policy, and said that Georgia should become a ‘bedrock of economic stability and security in the Caucasus’.

Zura­bishvili vowed to ‘stand by’ inter­nal­ly displaced persons in Georgia and also urged the public to consider those ‘living in the occupied ter­ri­to­ries’ as fellow citizens that they must reconcile with.

‘We, with Abk­hazians and Ossetians, have come a long way together. We are each others’ relatives, we have mixed families. We have to find ways to reach out to the new gen­er­a­tion and lead them to Europe. Now, as never before, the Abkhaz language and identity needs pro­tec­tion’, stated Zura­bishvili in her inaugural speech.

The new president said that Abkhazia and South Ossetia were occupied by Russia, something that Georgia, as a sovereign country, would not tolerate.

Zura­bishvili praised the principle of ‘social sol­i­dar­i­ty’ — between gen­er­a­tions, towards socially vul­ner­a­ble people, single mothers, and people with dis­abil­i­ties — something which she called the ‘basis of a strong state’,

Dig­ni­taries from over 50 countries, including Armenian President Armen Sarkiss­ian and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, attended the cel­e­bra­tion.

Oppo­si­tion parties had pre­vi­ous­ly pointed to what they deemed a lack of high profile people on the guestlist.

Bidzina Ivan­ishvili, the chair of the Georgian Dream party, who urged his party to endorse Zurabishvili’s candidacy and supported her through­out the campaign, was not present at the inau­gu­ra­tion ceremony.

Jour­nal­ists were not allowed into the inau­gu­ra­tion ceremony and were instead allocated a space in the castle’s courtyard, where the author­i­ties had set up a monitor.

With Zura­bishvili sworn in as president, a new version of the Georgian con­sti­tu­tion also came into force, reducing further the president’s powers and making her the last president to be elected by popular vote. The next Georgian president will be selected in six years time by a 300-member election board.